Stereotyped..

This is the story of a girl who hated being stereotyped and who was stereotyped at every attempt she made at being different:

When she was born, she was exposed to all the things a girl might like. Pink, dolls, miniature kitchen sets.. She liked them all. She developed a liking for reading, so was introduced to fairy tales. They said, " She's a typical girl".

She grew up, became an older sibling when she was 4. She started noticing her brother's toys. Was fascinated with cars, bats, balls. She started getting bored with all the pots and pans. Cycling was the thing. Outdoors beckoned. Her likes followed her to school. She hated shopping and preferred to watch sports. They labelled her a 'typical tomboy'.

She reached her teenage. She insisted on wearing comfortable clothes instead of the ones in vogue at that time. She defended equal rights for both genders. Took offense whenever someone dismissed others' driving skills as ' like a typical woman's '. She refused to follow the set conventions for women. They said " Ahh, another feminist " when she remained headstrong and fiercely independent.

She is now at the verge of leaving her teenage years behind. She still loves pink. Still likes fairy tales and still hates shopping, and gossiping. Still enjoys sports more. She still believes in gender equality, still fiercely independent. She doesn't like being pampered. Hates flowers and chocolate. She prefers to pay the bill. Doesn't like to alter her appearance according to what people tell her. Yes, she has now become a typical Alpha-Woman.

Even in the desire to be different from everyone else, she is no different from the rest.




Moral of the story : No matter what you do, you will be stereotyped, because people like to define things. They fear what they don't understand. They try to make it an outcast. They would rather create new categories for defining things that don't come under the predefined categories than accepting them as different.

The Lesser Catastrophe

Those of you, who know me personally might have discovered that I am quite a spelling and a grammar nazi. So much that I feel like screaming my guts out when someone uses a verb in the past tense after "did" or "didn't". Considering I am not much of a screamer, I think I have OCD.





My brother's English paper read "comprehension, grammEr and writing skills"!! And then since the 1st standard I guess, we have been taught that the plural of hair is hair and not hairs. Wren and Martin say the same. Then they also go on to advise that 'grey hairs should be respected.' Same is the case with fish and deer. While, I don't hear deers often, I hear about fishes everywhere. I even read about different types of fishes in my Biology textbook. Oh, but childrens, that is not why I am writing this post.

Today I would like to single out my wrath on 'lesser'. Quite how the trend started to use the word, I don't know. But my Readers' Digest Dictionary says 'lesser' doesn't exist. Urban Dictionary is of the same opinion. When less itself is a comparative degree of little, ( little > less > least ), where does lesser come from? Choose the lesser of the two evils, Children of a lesser God, your marks are even lesser than the previous test. It gets on my nerves so much! I had to endure it during my HSC classes.

Bah, I am not a snob nor do I want to give the impression that I am one. But this is just the way I feel. I mean some people feel the same, when they see a mess around them. They can't stand it and they go about cleaning it. If I point out the mistakes, the most common reaction is 'Haan, Haan , we know you know better English than us. Please spare us the tutorial' What's a poor nazi to do?

Ok. Rant over. Next time maybe I will go on to direct my wrath to 'anyways'. But not now.

On an unrelated note,
Layman's view :
Roger Federer rules.
Manchester United rules.
Sachin Tendulkar rules.

Expert Opinion :
After comparing the statistics for the past few years, we have to admit that Federer maybe one of the greatest tennis players of all time. In other words, Federer rules.

Rule, rule United; Glory Glory Man Utd; In other words Man Utd rules. (biased but a true opinion)

Sachin is probably the greatest player of all time. On field and off it too. Sachin rules. Duh.

Why be an expert when you know all the important truths of life? Ok another truth is that I have exams from Monday. Got to study. Bye!

Observations - Part I

People say your blogging activity is inversely proportional to your social life. Not true. My recent hiatus in context of blog updates does not indicate my social life suddenly became more prominent. My social is the same as before , which is, exactly the way I want it to be. It just means I was too bored/lazy to update. Coming back to the post.

I like wandering and going to arbit places. Also, I prefer going to the aforementioned arbit places au pied. So I have observed this particular thing for quite a long time now. Whenever I come across a car whose number plate begins with MH 04, the vehicle in question is always physically damamged. And its not just true for 90% of them, all vehicles having the number plate beginning with MH 04 , that i have come across, are damamged in some way or the other, without exception. Be it a little dent on the bumper, or cracked mirror or missing parking lights.

The other day, I was waiting at the bus stop with my friend. We saw a Tata Nano, probably on its maiden journey considering all the plastic covers on the upholstery. But even then, there was a wide scratch on it in the corner of the bumper! New car already scratched. MH 04 licence plate.



The 04 in the number plate means the owner of the car lives in or near Thane. So what does this mean? That all the drivers living in Thane are rash ? Or is something wrong with their driving schools? If you are an offended Thane resident after reading this post, please, before taking offense, check your vehicle or your neighbours and you will find it damaged in some way.

PS: This can true for other number plates too, but I have observed this fact in MH 04 number plates only, without exception yet. And this is just my observation that I am stating in my post.

The Secret Behind The Secret

OK, so it's been a long time. Again. So this post has some spoilers about the book ' The Secret'. So , don't scroll down if you are planning to read the book or planning to cuss at me for spoiling the surprise or whatever.

I read the book ' the secret ' sometime back. And of course I thought about it a lot. Eventually I came up with sort of a theory about it. Also, this is just my own conclusion and does not imply that it is true. I'll write as if it is true nonetheless.

According to the book, there is an attractive force in the universe and we attract all the things that are dominant in our head. If we are happy, we attract more happiness, if we are frustrated, we attract more frustration and boredom invites more boredom. Also there is another book called ' the power of your subconscious mind', which says that whatever you convince your subconscious mind about, your subconscious mind makes it happen. It doesn't consider, whether it is right or wrong, true or false. Someone even said, ' Whether you think you are good or bad, you are right'. So I wonder if the secret was written so as to make people think positively, by trying to convince us , that there is a force in the universe which grants all our wishes. Now, according to the theory of the subconscious mind, this will be true, if we believe it without a doubt.



For example, consider any day. Just like the previous day, you wake up and get ready to start your usual day. Now while you go about it, you get an unexpected call from your dear friend who has moved away or something. This makes a normal person quite happy, so assume that you become happy. Then you go about your day in a better mood. Suppose you decide to go out. Outside, you have to cross the road, you almost get hit by a car. Thinking today is lucky, you think you were almost killed and because of your lucky day, you were saved.

You don't pause to consider that you don't get almost killed by vehicles everyday. You look at the incident in a positive way. So, you think all the good things are happening to you because, today is your lucky day or that you are attracting happiness. It's all in the attitude.

Also, I think the same principle was used in religion. Those who believe in it without a doubt, have no issues about the existence of God. But those, who doubt, will find many loopholes, because its all in the mind. I think that is what gave rise to superstitions too. Even today. The film stars, the sportsmen, Ekta Kapoor. All the weird numerology, tarot. It all works because you convince your subconscious it is true.

I think I am done with my rant. My bottom line is that 'it's all in the mind'. You cannot do something only if you convince yourself beyond doubt that you cannot do it. OK. I am done now. Finally.

Great Minds

It's been a month and I still can't bring myself to type out all that I have written in my notebook. What can I say other than yes, I am a lazy ass. Oh yeah, I can say - lucky you.
Anyway I have come across this saying many times and I have still not been able to fully understand it. The saying goes 'Great minds think alike'
In the book of idioms and proverbs that I have, it says it means that people having great minds think of similar things. To quote exactly ,'"Great minds think alike" means that great people think about things in similar ways' And I could not find the origin of this proverb anywhere but it has been used in French by Voltaire in 1760.

"“Comment les Grecs ont-ils mis en fables ce que les Hébreux ont mis en histoire? serait-ce par le don de l’invention? serait-ce par la facilité de l’imitation? serait-ce parce que les beaux esprits se rencontrent? Enfin, Dieu l’a permis; cela doit suffire.”

Voltaire,”Dictionnaire philosophique”, “Bacchus”"

So if this phrase is true, how come only Voltaire came up with it? There were many great minds during his time eg Benjamin Franklin ( I got a rant for him too ). Why didn't they think like him and come up with a similar phrase? Also if this statement holds true, then why do we need innovation. Or why are people who think differently given preference? You should think like other people. You are great. If you go search for diamonds that washed ashore, like a million others, you are great. because you thought like a million others. So is it that the more number of people think like you, greater is your mind?

So why should shakespeare be considered great? No one thought about writing tragedy, romance and comedy in plays. Not at his time at least. Why are movies which have a different storyline from others considered great ( of course this has to be accompanied by great acting and great music ) Oh and what about music. Why are Beethoevn, Mozart et al considered great? because they thought like others?

So next time someone says , hey this isn't different, this is just like others. You can say ' dude, I have a great mind. I think like other great minds '. Or something.

And one more thing. Is it great minds think alike simultaneously? or we don't consider the time factor?

Expectations

Something or the other is always expected of us. By 'us' I refer to the entire human race. I was wondering, just when do people start expecting things from each other? I realised, it was from birth. Then I thought some more and realised, it is before we are even born. Let me elaborate..

When you are in your mother's womb, they expect you to pop out of your mother after 9months, if you dont come early that is. So, that is the first expectation. You have to be born. Then after taking birth, you are supposed to start crying with the first breath. I am neither a doctor nor a mother, nor do I remember what I did immediately after I was born, so I don't know what more is expected. So the second expectation is to cry. And so on. Then you are expected to laugh and cry appropriately, get excited in appropriate situations. Then you are supposed to start speaking. Say mumma, daddy, banana, Czechoslovakia and so on. Then or at the same time, you are supposed to show movement, crawl, sit, walk and so on.

Then comes the toddler stage. You are supposed to remember the names of the things pointed out to you by your parents\ relatives \ siblings. You are supposed to clear the admission interview in the school you are expected to get into. Most of the times you are expected to clear the interviews of ALL the schools in which your parents have applied. Then in school ,you are supposed to make friends, pass exams, be disciplined. This is of course expected of you for each and every exam, each and every course you undertake. You are expected to take part in some sport or any other extra curricular activity which generally is given less importance than academics even if you excel in that activity. You are expected to get a degree. Get a job. A certain age is quoted to you and you are told that that is your marriagable age. So by that age you are supposed to get married. You are supposed to provide your folks with grandchildren after a period of time.

You are supposed to support your parents in their old-age, you are supposed to retire eventually, raise you children properly, and in this cycle you start expecting things too. And this goes on.

Of course there are other random expectations like, you are expected to recover from any ailments or injuries you might have had. If you know how to cook, you are expected to cook etcetera. Not to mention expectations from sportspersons, actors, politicians, and all those who perform well in their fields.Where is the free will? Gone with the Goddamn wind? Oh and the worst(?) part, the things that you expect from yourself.

I wrote all this because I was overwhelmed with all the expectations, I wondered what happens if you defy all the expectations. I wondered when and if they would end. I concluded that they never end. I also concluded that you may be expected to do many things but you are also not expected to fulfill all those expectations. I am not saying expectations are a bad thing, no. I am just acknowledging the fact that they are everywhere and the fact that you can chose to ignore or fulfill those expectations. I suppose therein lies our free will. To fulfill or to ignore the expectations. That is what free will is all about. To ignore or no to ignore.

The story continues

In the previous post, I had started a story. But I hadn't completed it. I wanted you to speculate what would happen for a while ( yeah I do assume that I have at least one reader ). But now I couldn't wait any longer to put and end to those speculations. Here is what happens :

'Hello there. I was wondering if you could teach me this dance...'
She couldn't believe she had actually said that to the stranger who was holding her in his arms and steering her around the dance floor. And man! was he a good teacher! They sure were getting plenty of curious stares. The shy girl who never danced was dancing with a total stranger and dancing as if she had been born to dance.
The stranger no longer seemed like a stranger to her. He put her at ease with his witty comments about wannabe mother-in-laws who come to the balls to find grooms for their daughters. Sort of like Almacs in the older times. Also, he listened to what she had to say. She could see it in his eyes. Everytime she made some amusing remark, his eyes would light up and his lips would quirk up. Was this a dream or what!

The stranger looked at the girl in his arms. She fit in his embrace so perfectly. She was not only charming but also aware about the current events not only in the country but around the world. He always did have a thing for spunky girls. This one was oozing spunk from her personality. Today sure was his lucky day.
The song got over. Immediately it was followed by a slow song. Then a bit faster cha-cha number. She lost count of the number of songs after a while. This evening, it was just him and his enchanting voice. She was a goner. So it was perfectly natural that she agreed when he suggested they go somewhere private. In fact she had been expecting it.
The stranger led her by the elbow to a garden outside the dance hall. The fresh air was like a messenger of the good times to follow. OR maybe he just felt that because it had been stifling inside the dance hall. Not that he noticed. Though the park was filled with some people , it wasn't as crowded as inside. Most of them were couples who wanted to get away from prying eyes. He needed to get to a place away from these people. After searching for about a quarter of an hour, he found a secluded bench beneath a banyan tree slightly hidden from view. She had been following him like a zombie. Now looking at her seated across him, he knew what she wanted. It was evident from her eyes. And her ragged breathing. And her heated skin when he touched her. Turned her around so that her back was touching his chest. He moved her hair to the side, and his hand made patterns in her neck. His other hand removed something from his coat pocket.
The stranger wrapped the guitar strings around her neck. He had already tightened it sufficiently enough before she realised what was happening and thought to put up a fight. He pulled the strings harder and harder until her fast breathing which had culminated into painful gasps slowed and finally stopped. He didn't use a rod to tighten the death trap like his Spanish ancestors but it was Ok. He would get plenty of chances later. Besides, he had liked this one. She had almost made him change his mind. But mind compelled him. His obssession had won. He wondered if Jack the Ripper or Jeffrey Dahmer had felt the same elation he was feeling right now.
She saw her life flashing before her eyes. And her mother's innumerable unheeded warnings about being wary of strangers with charming tongues. It was too late to tell her mother that she had been right. Too late for her mother. Too late for her. She felt the pain in her chest increasing as the noose tightened. And as she finally gave up, her last thought was , 'today was good.'

MORAL : Do not talk to charming, tall strangers in a crowded ballroom even though you dont have a dance partner. Dont talk to strangers. period. They maybe friends you have not met yet or killers you have avoided so far.


END

PS : This was sure as hell NOT Mills and Boonish. After two people telling me the previous one was, I had a reputation to protect.